Our introductory task for Latin American Studies 100 was to review the videos made by students of the previous year. In general, I was very impressed by the creativity and knowledge of the students and I am definitely looking forward to learning more in this course. The videos I watched were,

1. Independence in Latin America:
   • Things I liked:
     • I thought the way that they had one central narrator who walked around to interview different people who had one topic made it dynamic
     • The filming was good and the speakers were clearly very knowledgable
     • I like how at the end, those who were from Latin America spoke from their own lived experience about how they view independence
     • They looked at independence in a multi-faceted way – in terms of key figures, causes, impacts, how it was received – and I think this provides a good picture for viewers
   • Things that could be better:
     • A couple of the areas they filmed had poor lighting and the filming could have been more steady/ less shaky
     • When they use the map and the writing on the whiteboard, both things are backwards/reversed because the camera flipped the images
2. Caudillos
   • Things I liked:
     • I thought it was very creative to have audio over hand-drawn images and written text
     • I liked how they compared to modern times/people e.g. Trump, and how they qualify all of their more negative statements of these “Caudillos” with how their actions did end up paving the way for some good things that make Latin America what it is today
   • Things that could be improved:
     • The camera was pretty shaky which made the quality of the video poor and hard to follow
     • Some of the drawings and writing was very messy and I think it could have been a lot better had they put more time/care into having it look neat
3. The Meeting of the Two Worlds III
   • Things I liked:
     • I really liked the idea of using paintings and animated videos to provide the visuals while having student’s audio narrate
     • They picked appropriate images/videos for each part e.g. when talking about the three ships, they had image of three ships
     • I like how they used direct quotes from Columbus
   • Things that could have been improved:
     • I think the narration was clear but could have been more animated like a story teller
     • The music was a little loud and was the same throughout where as I think if they had  used different music to set the tone for good/sad/bad moments in the story then it would have had more positive effect
4. The War on Drugs;
   • Things I liked:
     • The narration is clear and the tone they use fits the images and topic
     • I like how they highlighted key people and specific drugs and the roles they play in this
   • Things that could have been improved
     • I liked how they had an interview with someone from the region but this could have been more polished/rehearsed since they “broke character” a couple times and it is such a serious topic that this detracted from the tone of the video